TV series8 episodes × 50’Crime · DramaEast Rome

Riders on the Storm

শহর আমাদের। ভয় কারো না।The city is ours. Afraid of no one.

Based on the story by Massimo Scognamiglio

In Rome the taxis have always been good for one thing: ferrying the dealers around. Then the riders came.

The series in one line

Four Bengali delivery riders from East Rome steal a kilo of cocaine from the Dragona family, turn their delivery bikes into robbery machines and become famous live online. They were invisible. Now all of Rome is watching.

The GangIbra · Rash · Ferro · Nab · ApaFour boys with nothing to lose

The DhakaGrocery · Money transferWhere everything passes through

Logline · Synopsis · ValuesThe series

৮ episodesEpisodes

Dragona · Cops · BabuAntagonists

Light · Camera · MusicLook book

But…Season 2A king of Rome doesn’t run

The pitch

The whole project, in pitch order

Created by Massimo Scognamiglio, from his story Riders on the Storm. October 2026.

Logline and overviewPremise, format, tone
SynopsisThe story of season one
Themes and sub-themesFriendship, redemption, violence. And social media as truth
Why now, comps, audienceWhere it sits in the market
The worldThe Dhaka Mini Market and East Rome
CharactersThe Gang, Apa and their arcs
AntagonistsDragona, crooked cops, Babu, @bengalboy.it
The pilotSeventeen Minutes, scene by scene
Arc and episodesEight episodes in three movements
Future seasonsBut…
Look bookLight, camera, music, images
BudgetEstimate and breakdown
The story and the authorThe book it all comes from
In a nutshellEverything in eight points, if you’re short on time

Apa at the counter with her ledger — Apa, the woman of the Dhaka Mini Market

In a nutshell · if you’re short on time

In Rome the taxis have always been good for one thing: ferrying the dealers around. Then the riders came.

Four Bengali delivery riders walk into the homes they bring dinner to every night, and rob them live online. The more visible they become, the more they’re dead.

Behind them is Apa, the woman of the Dhaka Mini Market. To the four boys she’s a big sister. In truth she’s the boss: she picks the jobs and keeps the books on the money and the names. And she’s the one telling the story.

Because whoever has a home doesn’t run. And whoever has a home there can be found.

What: An 8-episode crime series, 50 minutes each, based on the story by Massimo Scognamiglio.
Where: East Rome, today. The Dhaka Mini Market, the riders’ streets, the homes of wealthy Rome.
Who tells it: Apa, the Gang’s boss and their big sister. The story is hers.

The series

Rome, seen from a bike

Logline

Four Bengali delivery riders from East Rome steal a kilo of cocaine from the Dragona, the family that runs half the city. With the money they turn their delivery bikes into robbery machines and film every job on a social account that grows to a million and a half followers. They were invisible, and they become famous. The more people watch, the closer the end. Behind them is Apa, who keeps everyone’s accounts at the Dhaka Mini Market and tells the story.

Format: 8 × 50'Season one. Season two starts from its last scene
Genre: Crime dramaFriendship, redemption, violence
Language: Italian or EnglishPrimary language, depending on the production. Secondary language: Bengali (Bangla), plus Roman street slang
Narrator: ApaSamira Begum, 32

Rome from above. The story looks at it from below.

Synopsis

The story

East Rome, today. Ibrahim is a delivery rider who delivers pizzas with a surprise inside: small-time dealing. One night the surprise is pepper spray. In a Trastevere apartment he steals a kilo of cocaine from Massimo, a courier for the Dragona. With him are Rash, Ferro and Nab, who sleep on cots in his basement in Torre Angela. And there is Apa, who runs the community’s money transfer from the Dhaka Mini Market and knows everything about everyone.

Apa sells the kilo to two corrupt cops. With that money the Gang turns the bikes into robbery machines and starts hitting the homes of wealthy Rome, on tips that pass through the Dhaka. Nab films everything and posts it on @bengalboy.it. The live robbery on Via Giulia makes them famous overnight. Every job after that brings more followers and tightens the hunt: the police stop riders, the community pays, and the Dragona make Massimo talk before they kill him.

When Babu, the community’s loan shark, recognizes them and hires them for a kidnapping, the Gang agrees: “once, just once.” Recognized by the hostage, Ferro kills him. At the Boishakhi Mela festival the Dragona grab Ferro, and the boys find him in a garage in Torre Spaccata when it’s too late. Ferro dies without saying a word.

Apa puts the pieces together: she lures the cops, Babu and the Dragona to the same place and lets them kill each other, while the boys leave for the airport with the money. She stays at the Dhaka. Babu, the only survivor, finds her there. Season one ends with a point-blank shot and a childhood memory: a boat in the flooded forest of Ratargul.

And then? But…

What it’s about

Friendship. Redemption. Violence.

Friendship

Five people who trust only each other. Ferro dies without telling the Dragona anything, his head on Ibrahim’s shoulder. Nobody wants to leave without Apa.

“Guys, you’ve got everything ready? Passports? Tickets?” “Not without you.”

Redemption

The boys who bring Rome its dinner without anyone looking at them decide to take the city. The Bengali motto says it plainly: the city is ours. But whoever becomes king of Rome can never leave.

“Rome was right there, just sitting, waiting for someone with the nerve to take it.”

Violence

Violence always has a price, even when it goes out live, and someone pays it: Massimo, Karim, Ferro, Apa. Every filmed job brings followers, and brings the Dragona closer.

“We aren’t invisible anymore, but the more visible we become, the more we’re dead.”

A robbery filmed live on a smartphone — “either it’s cinema or it’s real” · a comment on the Via Giulia livestream

The central theme

Film it to exist

The livestreamed robberies are not a plot detail: they are the heart of the series. For the boys in the Gang, filming a job means three things at once.

Exhibitionism

Being seen is the first loot. Rash throws punches while looking into the lens, Nab zooms in on the banknotes fanning out. The job is worth as much as the video it leaves behind.

Social redemption

The kid who delivered dinner without anyone looking at him now has a million people waiting for the next video. Followers are reputation, a name, capital. For the first time they matter.

Truth

As in trap music, showing money, the street and violence is proof: it’s all real, we lived it. The video doesn’t tell the robbery, it certifies it. And that very truth leads them straight to the Dragona.

Sub-themes

What surrounds it

Invisible and visible

Those nobody looks at and those everybody watches. Being invisible is an advantage, being famous a death sentence.

The city as prey

Rome to take, Rome that takes you. Whoever becomes king of Rome can never leave it.

The algorithm

The rawer the video, the more it gets rewarded. The platform raises the stakes with every job, and the Gang follows.

The chosen family

The Gang as brotherhood, Apa as big sister. Five people who trust only each other.

Debt and silence

Loan sharks, kidnappings, informal courts. A city inside the city, with its own laws.

Home and roots

Sylhet, Ratargul, the Dhaka. Who leaves, who stays, and what it means to have a home.

Work and exploitation

Riders, dishwashers, the app’s timer. A generation that delivers dinner to people who don’t see it.

The price of mercy

Ferro gives back a watch and spares a girl. Here, kindness is the biggest risk.

Why it’s different

Criminal Rome, seen by the people we never looked at

Roman crime drama has told the stories of the Magliana gang, Ostia, politicians and property developers, always from the Romans’ side. Riders on the Storm stands on the other side of the intercom: the Bengali community, the riders, the streets of East Rome. It takes the best of that tradition and brings it where it has never been.

What it takes

The gangAn ensemble of kids from the outskirts who want to take the city, as in Romanzo criminale.
The map of powerFamilies, dirty cops and loan sharks carving up Rome to keep the peace, as in Suburra.
TendernessAffection between friends inside the violence, as in Non essere cattivo.

Where it breaks away

Point of viewAn immigrant community telling its own story, with its own laws, debts and informal courts.
The voiceThe narrator is a woman: Apa, who doesn’t shoot or run, but keeps the books on everything, the dead included.
The gazeRome at bike height and on an app’s timer: seventeen minutes flat from Pigneto to Trastevere.
Social media as truthThe filmed robberies are exhibitionism, redemption and proof of truth, like trap music. They grow the followers and set off the hunt.
JoyBangla-tech music, red saris, the Boishakh new year. Celebration right next to the violence.

Why now

The invisible are everywhere

Every night riders cross our cities and almost nobody looks them in the face. Rome’s Bengali community is one of the largest in Europe, yet the screen has never told its story from the inside. Meanwhile social media has turned violence into content and followers into power. Riders on the Storm brings these three things together in a genre story.

Comparable titles

It sits between

Top Boyby Ronan BennettThe outskirts gang told by its own community
Scarfaceby Brian De PalmaThe immigrant who wants the whole city
Gangs of Londonby Gareth Evans and Matt FlanneryImmigrant clans and warehouse violence
Romanzo criminaleby Stefano Sollima, from the novel by Giancarlo De CataldoKids who want to take Rome
Snowfallby John Singleton, Eric Amadio and Dave AndronThe fast rise and its price

Audience

Who it’s for

The European crime drama audience, ages 18–44, looking for new and authentic stories. Young people who live on social media and see @bengalboy.it as one of their own. South Asian diaspora communities in Italy and across Europe. For streaming platforms and pay TV, with international distribution.

The Gang

These are my people

They live in a 20-square-meter basement in Torre Angela. By day they deliver food, wash dishes and post videos. By night they are the Gang. Open a card to meet them.

The narrator

Apa

Samira Begum · 32 · “the big sister”

She doesn’t deliver, doesn’t run, doesn’t raise her voice. She runs the Dhaka Mini Market. She is the Gang’s brain and keeps everyone’s accounts.

Open the card →

Dhaka Mini Marketঢাকা মিনি মার্কেটGrocery · Money transfer

The place as protagonist

The Dhaka

A grocery in East Rome with two humming fridges, a camera above the till and a Mecca calendar. It’s small, but half the world fits inside.

Money heading back to Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka passes through the Dhaka, and so do the tips. It is the community’s bank, its confessional, and the Gang’s operations room. Here Apa sells the kilo to the cops, Babu leaves his job, the Dragona send their errand man for a phone top-up. Here everything ends.

In the series the Dhaka is a character and changes with the story: a refuge at the start, a target at the end. In season two it is seized, with police seals on the shutter.

No credit

A day at the Dhaka

07:00Shutter up. Cooks, caregivers, builders, riders with empty backpacks: water, a banana, a ten-euro top-up.
09:00The men send money home: a sick mother, a sister getting married, a son who now calls his father “uncle” on the phone.
12:00The riders, sweaty even in winter: energy drinks, USB cables, plasters for their fingers.
1st of the monthThe two Italians with shoes too expensive for their job. Voluntary contributions.
00:00Shutter down. Apa opens her ledger.

The map

East Rome and other people’s Rome

Ponte di NonaOfficina Romanelli

A half-closed body shop. Bikes with motors hidden in the hubs, thermal bags with false bottoms, guns with filed-off serial numbers.

Torre SpaccataThe Dragona’s garage

A green sheet-metal door, a chair in the middle, a car battery with the cables already attached.

Largo PrenesteBoishakhi Mela

Bengali New Year: red saris, coconut rice, the stage. And the Italians who didn’t come to eat.

Via Giulia · Parioli · Flaminio · Prati · MonteverdeOther people’s Rome

The homes riders climb up to every night with a pizza. This time they come up with a gun.

LungotevereThe getaway

After every job, bikes racing along the river, with Tumi Amar in their earbuds.

Sylhet · RatargulThe flooded forest

Apa’s memory: a narrow boat among the trees, her father rowing without turning around.

Antagonists

The ones who already own the city

Three powers carving up East Rome to keep the peace, until the Gang breaks the balance. The finale puts them all in the same room.

The family

The Dragona

Vincenzo Dragona runs half of Rome. Only they lend at loan-shark rates, only they decide who opens and who burns. When a kilo goes missing the price doesn’t matter: nobody screws the Dragona. First they ask questions politely, then in a garage in Torre Spaccata.

The two corrupt cops at the Dhaka counter with a bag full of cash

The badge

The corrupt cops

Two clean-faced Italians with shoes too expensive for their job. One wears a Yankees cap and never faces the camera. They collect “voluntary contributions” from shopkeepers and buy the Gang’s kilo for fifty thousand euros. Then they get scared.

The man behind the kidnapping

Babu

The community’s loan shark. He lends ten thousand euros and wants a hundred thousand back. He can’t squeeze people in the street without stepping on the Dragona’s toes, so he hires the Gang to kidnap Karim. Just once, they say. He is the only one who survives the showdown, and he walks into the Dhaka covered in blood.

● LIVE

rider_roma99 · che era sta roba????peppe_trastevere · via giulia??

The fourth antagonist

@bengalboy.it

Nab’s account is both their ally and their enemy. Every robbery pushes the numbers up, and every video brings someone closer to the Dhaka’s door. In the series, the numbers mark the episodes.

1,240Ep. 3 · the account is born
26,000Ep. 4 · the Via Giulia livestream
600,000Ep. 7 · the Mela video
1,200,000Ep. 7 · “bengalboy.it 3 – Dragona 1”
1,400,000Ep. 8 · no new posts

Season one

Eight episodes

The story has a prologue and twelve chapters. The series spreads them over eight episodes and adds jobs and storylines the story only hints at. Open an episode to read it.

Episodes 1–3Invisible

The job that changes everything, the kilo sold to the cops, the workshop. Nobody is watching them, and that’s their edge.

Episodes 4–5Famous

The Via Giulia livestream and the robberies in wealthy Rome. A million people are watching, and the city starts looking for them.

Episodes 6–8Exposed

The kidnapping, Ferro’s death, Apa’s trap. Everyone knows who they are, and someone has to pay the bill.

But…

Season two

A king of Rome doesn’t run

Apa isn’t dead. And the boys never got on that plane.

Apa wakes up from a coma and her kingdom is gone. The police have seized the Dhaka: shutter sealed, fridges off, counter empty. Then an accountant nobody knows comes looking for her. He knows about the books, the thousand trickles, more than he should.

Who did Apa do big favors for?

Apa had prepared everything to make them disappear, but she couldn’t make them run. Whoever becomes king of Rome doesn’t leave Rome: leave, and you lose it. Season two picks up from that point-blank shot in the Dhaka, three million spread across a thousand trickles, and a city that now knows who they are. Babu is still alive. The Dragona have lost men and face. @bengalboy.it has one million four hundred thousand people waiting for the next video.

ApaShe survives Babu’s shot and wakes from the coma with nothing left: the Dhaka is seized, and the community has stopped coming to her.
The accountantA mysterious man who knows Apa’s books better than she does. Behind him is someone Apa once did favors that matter.
The boysThey stay in Rome, hiding in plain sight inside the city that’s hunting them.
Babu and the DragonaTwo revenges that cross, and a debt nobody has paid yet.
@bengalboy.itA silent account with one million four hundred thousand people waiting. When it speaks again, Rome listens.

Back to episode 8 The budget

Look book

Wet night, heart in celebration

The trailer already sets the look of the series. Rome’s darkness in the rain, and on top of it the community’s colors: the yellow backpack, the red saris, the green of the flag.

Wet asphalt

Backpack · marigold

Sari

Flag · blood

Dhaka shop sign

Sodium light

Light

Night, rain, sodium lamps and shop signs. Full daylight belongs to the Dhaka, the workshop and the memory of Ratargul.

Camera

At bike height. Long one-take rides, the app’s timer on screen, Rome rushing past without ever stopping on a postcard.

Screens

@bengalboy.it’s vertical videos enter the story with their comments. The audience watches along with the followers.

Music

Bangla-tech over the titles, with a whole generation of Bengalis dancing in front of the Colosseum. Habib Wahid’s Tumi Amar under the robberies, Esho he Boishakh at the Mela.

Language

Primary language Italian or English, depending on the production. Secondary language Bengali (Bangla), subtitled, plus Roman street slang. The motto “Shohor amader. Bhoy karor na.” returns like a refrain.

Faces

Performers from Rome’s Bengali community, alongside Roman actors for the Dragona and the cops.

Images from the trailer

Illustrations from the story

Budget estimate

What it costs

An indicative estimate, based on average costs of high-end Italian crime series made for streamers and pay TV. To be confirmed with a producer and a production schedule.

Season one · 8 × 50’€10–16Mabout €1.2–2M per episode

Leaner versionunder €1M / ep.More night interiors, fewer days in the historic center

Italy’s national tax credit for audiovisual production and Lazio Region funds can cover a significant share of the costs.

Crew and shooting40–45%About 80–100 days, many exterior nights, scenes on bikes and in the rain
Cast12–15%New faces from the Bengali community, recognizable names for the Dragona and the cops
Post-production and VFX10–12%Rain, social media screens, graphic inserts, color grading
Overheads and contingency10%
Locations and permits8–10%Rome’s historic center, East Rome, the Mela in Largo Preneste
Development and writing5–7%Writers’ room, bible, scripts for all 8 episodes
Music and rights3–5%Bengali tracks and original score

The story

Riders on the Storm

A story by Massimo Scognamiglio. A prologue and twelve chapters, narrated by Apa.

Author: Massimo Scognamiglio
Publisher: Independently published
ISBN: 979-8-18214-364-6
Languages: English · Italian

Read the story

The author

Massimo Scognamiglio is an artist, photographer, technologist and writer. For more than thirty years he has worked across visual arts, literature and digital innovation. He has exhibited in Italy and abroad, including at the MACRO Museum and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and in 1996 he founded one of Italy’s first web companies in Rome. He has lived in California and the American Midwest. He also made the trailer.